LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



GEORGE H. CALVERT'S BOOKS. 
— $ — 

THE NATION'S BIRTH, and Other National Poems $1.00 

ARNOLD AND ANDRE. An Historical Play 1.50 

ESSAYS /ESTHETICAL i. S o 

BRIEF ESSAYS AND BREVITIES 1.50 

SOME OF THE THOUGHTS OF JOSEPH JOUBERT. 

With a Biographical Notice 1.50 

FIRST YEARS IN EUROPE 1.50 

LIFE AND WORKS OF GOETHE. An Essay 1.50 

THE MAID OF ORLEANS. An Historical Tragedy.... 1.50 

THE LIFE OF RUBENS 1.50 

CHARLOTTE VON STEIN 1.50 

WORDSWORTH 1.50 

SHAKESPEARE. A Study 1.50 

COLERIDGE, SHELLEY, GOETHE..... 1.50 

LIFE, DEATH, AND OTHER POEMS 1.00 

MIRABEAU. An Historical Drama 1.00 

ANGELINE 50 

JOAN OF ARC 1.00 

THREESCORE, AND OTHER POEMS 1.00 

LEE AND SHEPARD. Publishers, Boston, Mass. 



THREESCORE, 



OTHEK POEMS. 



THREESCORE, 



OTHEE POEMS. 



GEORGE H. CALVERT. 



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fttfW OF CO.'.'G 



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"MAY 10 >HR3' 



BOSTON: 
LEE AND SHEPAED, PUBLISHEES. 

NEW YORK: 
CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM. 



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Copyright, 1883, 
By GEORGE H. CALVERT. 



The Riverside Press, Cambridge : 
Electrotyped and Printed by H. 0. Houghton & Co. 



CONTENTS. 



THREESCORE ....' ........ . 7 

A DEEPER DEEP . 11 

MAY-SPIRIT 14 

LIEE'S JUBILEES . 17 

UPWARD 21 

DAYS IN DARKNESS SET . 23 

FREE . ' . . . . 25 

SHELLEY . 31 

LOVE * 33 

NEW YEAR ....... o o . . . . 34 

FUNERAL SONG ........... 36 

THE MAIDEN ............. 88 

TO AESCHYLUS 40 

QUATRAINS ...... ...... 41 

TO MRS. POWEL 42 

LISETTE ............. 43 

THE SMILE 49 

HER LITTLE BOY ........... 53 

GREECE 55 

WARD'S SHAKESPEARE . 60 

BUNKER HILL 63 

A NATION'S BIRTH 65 



THREESCORE. 

I am not old, and will not be ; 

I daily grow, and joys are piled 

About my life, as when a child 
I bloomed into Eternity. 

And still for me the sunny day, 
Outleaping from mysterious night, 
With dew of God's fresh-breathing bright, 

Glistens in all its primal ray. 

Each morning is a buoyant birth : 
Daily I rise up from the deep 
Of bounteous, broad, prolific sleep, ■ — 

The only death man knows on earth. 



THREESCORE. 

I grasp the wonders to my soul, 

That flash their freshness far and near, 
And tell how great is that career 

That bares to me so vast a whole. 

And at the multitudinous joy 

Of being, without, within, I drink 
As thirsty as when on the brink 

I played and pried, a wondering boy. 

And am I not an infant still ? 
Or should I pace a sixscore span, 
What were it to th' eternal plan 

Ordained me by Almighty will ? 

All earthly time is fagot smoke ; 
The soul is an upspringing flame, 
That, kindled, mounts to whence it came, 

And frees itself from yearly yoke. 



THREESCORE. 

If I were old, the life within 

Would cease to blossom thought and want, 
And, like an hoar oak, branchless, gaunt, 

"Would dribble through a hollow skin. 

But new thoughts gush, and wants, as bold 
(And wider) as when twenty years 
Through dauntless hopes and flying fears 

Had shot me into manhood's mould. 

High beauty's glory ne'er was higher, 
Nor so ethereal yet its power, 
Nor yet of reaching thought the dower 

So glittering with celestial fire. 

And never in those earlier days, 

When joy was bold and hopes were new, 
Were rainbows of such heavenly hue, 

The future so with life ablaze. 



10 THREESCORE. 

The quick perennial now is mine 
As much as in my wakeful youth, — 
Nay. more ; for gleams of gathered truth 

Their safety on its tempests shine. 

This mighty now, this lord of life, — 
And yet of life itself the thrall, — 
Doth sparkle 'mid the sparkling all, 

With transcendental vision rife ; 

With vision peering in the deeps 
That deepen with the spiritual ken, 
Aglow with blest revealings, when 

The spirit towards its freedom leaps. 

Life is no mouldering sapless swathe, 
Our clay-clad bones erect to hold : 
'T is flame that kindles worlds untold, 

A fire whose warmest pulse is faith. 

1865. 



A DEEPER DEEP. 

There is a deep deeper than thought, 

Dim sanctuary, myriad-doored, 
Where Feeling's miracles are wrought, 

Whence Life's immensities are poured. 

There whisper voices none can hear, 
Shoot quickening glimpses no eyes see ; 

There Sorrow's lonely filtered tear 

Falls drowned in th' infinite inward sea. 

Thence, through the glow their birth creates, 
Great deeds flash on the world's eclipse, 

And words, that spirit consecrates, 
Sparkle long ere they kindle lips. 



12 A DEEPER DEEP. 

And there, with veil of sunless smoke 
Shrouding in shade unholy thirst, 

Deformed desires their thought evoke, 
In self-destruction pre-immersed. 

There holy purpose secret throbs 
Blessings to buoy the coming time, 

And hoarsely heave the certain sobs 
Boding the bitterness of crime. 

Beneath an earthy sordid gloom 
Upspring elating jets of fire, — 

Fresh buds of Beauty's primal bloom, — 
The lustral flames aye glancing higher. 

There redden sparks so hot with life 
They melt the frosts that palsy sight, 

And for a moment fevered strife 
Is quenched in happiness of light. 



A DEEPER DEEP. 13 

And deeper still, below the deeps 
Where human life broods on its nest, 

A breath the subtile fibres sweeps, — 
Deific breath that keeps them blest. 



MAY-SPIRIT, 

Eaeth her breast again is warming, 
And in mystery deep are spun 

Lives uncounted, joyful swarming 
Out to meet th' ascending sun : 

Kisses flames he in a flood, 

Sparkling through their mounted blood. 

What a resurrection's glory ! 

Souls upwaking toward the Soul, 
One and many, young and hoary, 

That so raptureth the whole, 
Not the least, but it must be 
Each an immortality. 



MAY-SPIRIT. 15 

See the foremost lilies, lancing 

With quick green their winter roof, 

Eound about them timid glancing 
If the snow be all aloof ; 

While above, fresh-orbed with flowers, 

Glows a maple through the showers. 

Everywhere the mould is bursting 

With imprisoned souls enfreed, 
Each for blossoms hotly thirsting 

To revive the earth with seed ; 
And at night around their sleep 
Stars a watchful heaven sweep. 

Still diviner than what poureth 
Ecstasy through earth and space 

Is the might that calmly soareth, 
Keeping all in peaceful place ; 



16 MAY-SPIRIT. 

Motion, fervor, safely folding, 
Law unbroken aye upholding. 

Thunder liveth that ne'er sounded, 
Closely held in lightning's lap, 

Closely by the Might unbounded : 
Lo ! if they should flash and clap, 

Heaven itself would cease to be, 

And be shrunk Infinity. 



LIFE'S JUBILEES. 

Wheis" the earth, to light new-born, 

With requickened voices sings, 
At the flush of wakened morn, 

In its gold I steep my wings ; 
Then, wherever pulses beat 

To the burst of being's glee, 
Revelling in glad nature's heat, 

There I hold a jubilee : 
Where first violets, sprung from graves, 

Sip a sparkling draught of dew, 
Or replenished cedar waves 

'Gainst the tempest leaflets new ; 
Where the sea a murmur makes, 

That the moon, with streak to shore 



18 LIFE'S JUBILEES. 

Through its crystal, glittering breaks 

What the sun had smoothed before ; 
Eound cold capes, where storm and sea 
Lash the land incessantly ; 
In hot lair whence leopard leaps ; 
Down the dell where glow-worm peeps ; 
Where tall cataract's midnight roar 

Silences hoarse lions near ; 
Where beneath hushed shadows hoar 

Nightingale elates his ear. — 
Now a sweeter thirst I slake, 

Hugging children to their toys ; 
Or a deeper joy I wake, 

Bounding with the hopes of boys ; 
And still deeper when I swim 

In the looks aflame with fire, 
That, to courage kindling him, 

Eaps the youth to man's desire, 



LIFE'S JUBILEES. 19 

As his glances softly thrid 

Fresh-oped path through maiden's lid, 

And two beings' ecstasy 

Holds all life in prophecy ; 

Or with th' unmatched smile I play 

Wreathed in love's warm heaven within, 
Hallowing with his finest ray 

All the mother's features thin, 
When her firstling she espies, 
And new vision win her eyes ; 
Or I dance along the blood 

Calmly reddening in the hearts 
Just about to pour in flood, 

Fearless fronting deadly smarts, 
That men's lives may higher be 
After some Thermopylae. 
Where live knowledge, with a spring, 

Victor-flusht a mystery bares, 



20 . LIFE'S JUBILEES. 

And, her thought-light brandishing, 

Far ahead a guidance flares, 
Aye renewing manhood's youth 
By revealing truth on truth, 
There I hold high revelry, 
Blossoming on discovery. 
When the Poet's free far-seeing 

Greets new thought with feeling's kiss, 
Warming his illumined being 

With a more than earthly bliss, 
From his soul a lightning gleaming 

That nor fades nor smites with death, 
But with freshness ever streaming 

Sweetens ever manhood's breath, — 
Then, then I joy to be ; 
There my highest jubilee. 



UPWARD. 

We cannot rise by sense alone, 

By what we touch and see and feel, 
By levers of the daily meal : 

Senses are footstools round a throne ; 

And be these held by blinded slaves, 
Who see above no higher seats, 
Contented with their lowly heats, 

Circling like bats in starless caves, 

The service of the throne doth fail, 
Shaken the king by earthly fears, 
His eyes ne'er moist with ruthful tears, 

His upper lights distract and pale. 



22 UPWARD. 

The blinded slaves are guilty greeds, 
Dumb lusts of flesh and pelf and power, 
Gross appetites unblest, that lour 

To seize and chain the higher needs. 

Unblinded they must run ; and then 
Slaves they will cease to be, and rise 
To bless and to be blest, with eyes 

Bright visionary with higher ken. 



DAYS IN DARKNESS SET. 

Why are our days in darkness set, 
Sundered by interspersed glooms, 

Like diamonds on a field of jet, 
And life a retinue of dooms ? 

Self -sentenced are we by our greeds, 
That outface virtue on the seats 

Whence law should flow from generous creeds 
To drench with life these selfish heats. 

Eude tyrants are we to our being, 

Cooping us in the gilded pens 
Of worldliness, with its mis-seeing, 

By glimmers duped from shallow fens ; 



24 DAYS IN DARKNESS SET. 

Or simmering on the flameless fire. 
Of daily vice, that heartstrings chars, 

We make the soul an earthly pyre, 
Blackening its healthiness with scars ; 

The soul, which is a light flashed thence 
Where life, beyond the sphere of earths, 

Glows with a being so intense, 

Each throbbing is a thousand births ; 

Flashed thence to be itself creative, 

Thought, feeling, bounteous deed aye raying 

Upon all neighbor life, and, native 

Of Heaven, with broad divineness swaying. 



FREE. 

That stout maple cannot walk, 

Or the wild deer mount on wings, 
Unchecked eagle glibly talk, 

Blazing rainbow shift its rings, — 
Think you therefore they are thralls, 
Convict culprits tied to stalls, 
Hindered, hampered, shrunken slaves, 
Longing to be free in graves ? 
Each is whole with nature's gifts, 

Euns its cordial range of life, 
Void of impulse that uplifts 

Motion to a counterstrife. 
Freedom is not lawlessness ; 

She of law is all compact ; 



26 FREE. 

For 't is that doth loving press 

Quickening shoots to fruitful act. 
Nothing bodied but must be 

Circumclosed in rightful bounds : 
Suns and planets, like the tree, 

Wheel by law their mighty rounds ; 
Law it was that shaped their being, 

Drew them from chaotic naught, 
And their lives from riot freeing 

Keeps them now with splendor fraught. 
Can you see without your eye, 

Whose far virtues, every one, 
Through encaged matter ply, 

Matter moulded like the Sun ? 

Through the hot-breathed engine fleet, 
Telegraph that light outspeeds, 

Our slow bulks have swifter feet, 
And are freer thought and deeds. 



FREE. 27 

Thus the lower lifts the higher, 
Kindling soul to subtler fire, 
When for truth we wisely watch, 
From glad Nature secrets snatch, 
life were freedom, if the soul 

Were not oft its own fee'd foe, 
Madly seeking sunken goal, 

'Gainst its current's healthy flow. 
Health is then when no desire 

Is by noisome hindrance pained, 
And no hallowed soaring fire 

With a fulsome heat profaned. 

Life's unsounded current's head 
Sparkles trickling from the vast, 

By almighty wisdom sped, 
Into life divinely cast ; 

Sparkles with a Soul, new-launched, 

Or elate or terror-blanched, 



28 FREE. 

Ever struggling to be free, — 

Spirit, quintessential spright, 
Deathless possibility, 

Motor mute, invisible might, 
Forger fine of every form, 
Driving on through calm or storm ; 
Onward, upward, through the joys 
Childhood tires of as of toys, 
Through the fragrance, fresh ascending, 

From young passion's censer swung 
Round the blushing self, sweet blending 

Incense to another flung ; 
Onward to the looming heights 

Where great manhood reigns in power, 
Looming through the artful lights 

Hope throws on the coming hour. 

Soul, Soul, how swarm thy trials, 
As huge tempests 'bout the earth, 



FREE. 29 

When they pour from burning phials 

"Wreck that proves her steadfast worth. 
Thou shalt seem to be uplifted 

But to be cast lower down : 
Keen delights, desires unsifted, 

Freedom in their joyance drown. 
Freedom springs not from the dross 

Of warm wants self-gratified ; 
Her plumed pinions are not gross 

With hot fuel, passion-plied. 
Passions, pleasures, have their places, 

And so has clean appetite ; 
But 't is not as Freedom's braces, 

Or inflators of her flight. 

Of the self unbind the self; 
Hush the lusts, loud greeds of pelf: 
Thus acquitted being bless 
Through full self-forgetfulness. 



30 FREE. 

Diamond's worth is what it throws 

From its core to others' eyes : 
Man is precious as he glows 

With the large humanities ; 

And 't is they whose winged might 

Lifts him into freedom's light. 
From cold mineral up to man 

Aspiration is the law 
Whereby each accomplish can, 

Each his life unstained by flaw. 
When all wishes upward strive, 
Then will life be full alive : 
Only is the soul then free, 
When it freer aims to be. 
Onward, upward ; higher, higher ; 
See ! there beckons angel-fire. 



TO SHELLEY. 

Dear outcast, whose melodious moan 

Startled erewhile our English air, 
iEolian heart tuning the groan 

Of sick humanity, wan care 
Flush t into life by spirit's breath 

That won from sufferance and death 
A tearful ravishment — love's wings 

Bore thee, a weeping Ariel, 
About the earth, to cool the stings 

Of anguish with thy rhythmic spell. 
Thou stoodst apart, the solitude 

Of thy quick-panting breast o'erpeopled 
With being's prime, the fire-eyed brood 

Of Poesy, wherewith high-steepled, 



32 TO SHELLEY. 

Sun-pinnacled piles thou didst upthrow. 
Flamed with imagination's glow ; 
Fabrics supreme to crumble never, 
The soul's warm homes of light forever. 



LOVE. 

I have no fear of thee, 

That thou wilt swerve from me ; 

My feeling is so closely wound 

About thy being, through, around, 

I cannot fancy how 

We two could part : canst thou ? 

3 



THE NEW YEAR. 

What a tumult ! how they pour, 
Like a crowd through narrow door ! - 
Passions, plans, desires, and schemes, 
Dogged purpose, winge'd dreams, 
Hurrying into the New Year, 
Flusht with hope or pale with fear. 
And athwart the murmur's flow, 
One above and one below, 
Voices two are clearly heard : 
Like the warbling of a bird, 
One is full with joy and life, 
Broken one with ghastly strife ; 
From the heaven within us one, 
Hell is in the other's tone. 



THE NEW YEAR. 35 

Heed the higher, hush the other, 
Lest ye would the New Year smother ; 
For the new is fresh from God, 
Pure as dew on morning sod. 

Bless the year with more and less : 
Less of hate, more helpfulness ; 
Less of fraud and faithless fashion, 
More of truth and noble passion ; 
More of love's sure thoughtfulness, 
And of cross-eyed discord less ; 
More of aspiration's joy, 
Less of groveling greed's alloy ; 
More of love and less of lust, 
So to lift us o'er our dust. 
Let the man control the beast, 
That the year be one long feast : 
Thus we win the great New Year, 
And the right to crown his bier. 



HER FUNERAL SONG. 

Sadder than wont the neighbors came ; 

For she had sunk in giving life, 

A youthful mother, loving wife. 
The quenching of so fresh a flame, 

The mystery of untimely death, 

Wrought in us and more stilled our breath. 

The mill near by had stopped its wheel, 
A May sun warmed the open door, 
And trees and flowers, the porch before, 

Glowed with new life as they did feel 
Athwart the air, beneath the sod, 
The blessing of the eternal God. 



HER FUNERAL SONG. 37 

And when the prayer within was heard, 

A mocking-bird his voice upsent, 

A lively, pure accompaniment. 
Was it but music of a bird ? 

Was it herself who near them hovered, 

From seeming death so quick recovered ? 

Her soul was free, and joyed to well 

Through the sweet bird's delighted throat, 
With heavenly, clear, immortal note, 

To break the gloom's too earthly spell, 

On the hushed, shadowed, mournful throng, 
Pouring her own blithe funeral song. 



THE MAIDEN. 

Shy, graceful-timorous, like large-eyed fawn 

Just waked from dreamless sleep ; 
And yet, unconscious bold as urgent dawn 
Self -heralded by dewy lights that peep 

Into the day they bring, 
From far, mysterious, supersolar spring, 
She comes, fresh wonder, freshen ii daily 
By great auroras ever breaking 
Prophetic clear, flushed gayly 
From deepened soul, and making 
Her face an aye-renewed illumination ; 
Her step elastic as the light 
That leaps upon relucent lake, 
And firm as virtue's easy might 
When great obediences its brilliance make ; 



THE MAIDEN. 39 

So fragrant she with sweet humanity, 
The gazer's sense is purged incessantly ; 
Her inward being so superbly full, 
Shining all through her blood's carnation, 
That Beauty can unstinted cull 
The thousand hues 
From roses, whites and blues, 
Wherewith he would delight 
The glad beholder's sight, 
And cast reviving spell upon each eye 
That strains to seize this morning mystery, 
Ensteeped in life and grace and loveliness, 
The elated features so divinely married 
Best bloom from each to all so deftly carried, 
They glow a wreath of linked tenderness, 
Life's dearest gifts, warm lavish loves, 
Raying about her as she moves, 
So circling her with love-illumined cope, 
That she, where'er she cometh, fills the air with hope. 



TO ^SCHYLUS. 

(After reading " The Maxims witty and wise of the Athenian tragic Drama 
by D'Arcy Wo Thompson.") 

How wise thou art ! — so prematurely wise 

We wonder at the words that fall from thee, 

Words of such wide-embracing sympathy 

They clasp our feelings' brood and thoughts that rise 

From the best brains, as they were modern-new. 

But still thou dost not, couldst not, shouldst not, reach 

That beaming height of wisdom whence to teach, 

What to humanity is foremost true, 

Of Love the power and good and peerless beauty, 

Th' immortal life and wealth and depth of Duty, — 

Deeps which were later probed by a great Soul, 

A soul so tender strong, so simply fine, 

Men face not yet his facts in their bright whole, 

But veil them with beliefs as crude as thine. 



QUATRAINS. 

Dear life is weariness to those 
Who dig forever in the mire 

Of self, or prank them in the shows 
Of sense, or overfeed desire. 



Your soul may be a quickening sun, 
Which only thrives when it doth give ; 

Learn this, and you have partly won 
Your life, and know what 't is to live. 



Man's life is mostly but a branch 
Torn dripping from a happy whole ; 

And sensuous balsam cannot stanch 
Wounds that bleed inly from the soul. 



TO MRS. POWEL. 

(On receiving from her a covered basket of roses.) 

Like the dawn, quick heralding 
The sunniest day of spring, 
A fragrance brims the sense 
From hidden treasure, whence 
Blow tidings that express 
A punctual friendship's truth and living inwardness. 

the beauty of the roses, 
In whose sweet breath reposes, 
Mid tender sleeping buds 
And color's perfumed floods, 
The wealth, and nothing less, 
Of dear old friendship's ever-freshened loveliness. 



LISETTE. 

A MUSICAL BALLAD. 

A midnight strain — so warm and bold 
The rooms dilated with its might — 

Loosed on the sleepers sleep's soft hold 
To pale them first with wonder's fright. 

Athrongh the open door they crept ; 

And there Lisette, with nimblest ease, — 
While still her outward senses slept, — 

Struck with a master-hand the keys : 

Their little handmaid, meek Lisette, 

She who three years their babe had nursed, 

Herself a child, not thirteen yet, 
In rhythmic fingering all unversed. 



44 LISETTE. 

Swift the fresh harmonies of sound 
Leap from the keys into the ear, 

Piling up concord, mound on mound, 
And clasping th' air so cordial near, 

The listener breathes but ravishment ; 

Then tenderly afar they sink 
(As sense, dissolved, with thought were blent) 

Almost to very stillness' brink ; 

Thence to rebound with fugue of thunder, 
Rolling athwart the raptured strings, 

To flush the soul with tuneful wonder, 
Lifted on unapparent wings. — 

Uprose she sudden with the grace 
Of ripened womanhood, her hair 

About her childish, dreamy face 

Dressed with a former fashion's care ; 



LI SETT E. 45 

" I am the mother of Lisette : 

Start not, dear friends ; to me how dear ! 
Loved guardians of my orphaned pet. 
By law of life and love I 'm here ; 

" For soul with soul is so compact, 
It leaps of fleshly form the fence 
To interfuse, in thought and act, 
Being with being, sense with sense, 

" On earth sweet music was the food 
Of all my life. My head and heart 
It filled, resounding through my blood 
To heal in me my daily smart. 

" 'T is three years since the earth I left, 
And pain and hunger's agony, 
And worse, thinking she was bereft 
Of mother's help, of all in me. 



46 LISETTE. 

" But ! the blessed privilege 

Of death, which is not death, but life 
Released, — life sharpened with the edge 
Of higher thought, with freedom rife. 

" Soon as earth's film passed from my soul 
I saw my child, afar, afar, 
Dim as a hope flashed through the dole 
Of black despair, or mist-held star. 

" Still higher joy, delightful wonder ! 

Scarce had I thought me of the wide, 
Gross distance that us two did sunder, 
Scarce had I willed me by her side, 

" "When I was there ; and there have been 
Each minute since ; my life, my joy, 
My heaven, to be with her, and wean 

From earth her gentle thoughts, and buoy 



LISETTE. 47 

" Her heavenward. Could she live here, 
I 'd help her live ; but she is doomed ; 
x\nd even now the day is near 

When she her last will here have bloomed." 

She ceased ; then like a woman went 
Forth from the room up to her bed, 

Lisette's small cot, the two still blent 
In one, daughter by mother led. — 

Lisette woke late, without or ken 
Or conscience of that tuneful hour ; 

Weaker than wont, and daily then 

She paled and drooped, like smitten flower. 

One morning lonely in the bed 

They found her body ; gone the gem. 

Herself, her spirit, away had sped 
To help her mother watch o'er them. 



48 LISETTE. 

While they were weeping for Lisette 

They heard a song, as though the spheres. 

Choiring in joy above, had let 

Their rapture reach to human ears. 



THE SMILE. 

A SCENE IK THE AFTER LIFE. 

'T was she ! She sat upon a bank, 

A babe within her arms ! 
But she is dead. And was 't the clank 

Of conscience, guilt's alarms, 
That made her seem to breathe new breath ? 
He too ! — had he not writhed in death ? 

But now he was alive, and stalked 

Before the grave -like mound : 
A six feet span was all he walked, 

Aye quickly wheeling round, 
As though just there some demon raged, 
And he invisibly were caged. 



50 THE SMILE. 

On her his gazes aye he bent ; 

He could not else than so : 
All hers upon the child were spent, 

As she no change could know. 
And now and then she gently pressed 
The babe more closely to her breast. 

The child stared with a thirsty look. 
Its eyes would drink his being ; 

Then with a sudden dread it shook, 
As blasted by their seeing. 

Mother and child together clung, 

The two by one pale terror wrung. 

His eyes were balls of rayless fire, 
They seethed his ghastly brain ; 

And through his pulse unquenched desire 
Poured its dim hell of pain \ 



THE SMILE. . 51 

As there he paced, without a pause, 
Moved by the mystic might of cause. 

He could nor rest nor look away, 

He had no power of will ; 
All that he squandered on the day 

He drank of murder's fill ; 
And near the two with light imbued, 
He strode in a dark solitude. 

He could not sigh, he could not weep, 

His life so subject drear ; 
Forth from his tainted blood could leap 

No easeful moan or tear. 
Rang in his ears the awful cry — 
There is no death ! he could not die. 

And still the child it stared, with bland, 
Inquiring look and wild ; 



52 THE SMILE. 

Then suddenly put out its hand, 

Then on him deeply smiled : 
A groan did the long silence greet, 
And he fell weeping at her feet. 



HER LITTLE BOY. 

Joy slid into her grief, 
A light shone from each tear, 
When she could give her to the great belief 
Her little boy was near. 

She felt his presence mute, 
And soon, his prattle still, 
Aerial breathing through unearthly flute 
Sent to her heart a thrill. 

And then, ecstasy ! 
All o'er the mother's face 
His tiny tender hands, with childish glee, 
Ran a caressing race. 



54 HER LITTLE BOY. 

For a sweet, rose-fleshed boy, 
Forth from th' eternal day, 
She 'd snatched an angel pet, — diviner joy, 
Free from the earth's decay. 

Regiven was her child, 
Through that beneficence 
Which, in celestial wisdom undefiled, 
Marries all soul to sense. 



ODE TO GREECE. 

Thou beautiful great Greece ! 

What is our debt to thee ! 
Upon thy sowing followed such increase 
That still to-day, and in all time to be, 

Where'er new men aspire, 

And have the spring to rise 
On thought's unflinching flight, the higher, higher 
They mount, the more the lightnings from thine eyes 

Shoot life into their souls, 

Luring them toward their goals, 
Aye beckoning to wider day, 
To freer, stronger sight and sway. 

This gorgeous western land — 

Save in broad Plato's dreams 



56 ODE TO GREECE. 

Unknown to thy bright band — 
Basks in the kindling beams 
Of thy illumination's might. 
As surely as the streets 
Of Athens in the fresh transcendent light 

Of Socrates, when greets 
His talk wise Jove, as he discoursed of duty, 
Jove listening from the Acropolis, aglow with beauty. 

Moments make histories. 

What a midnight was that 

When true Aristides, 

Close to where Xerxes sat, 

Met bold Themistocles, 

And, rivalry subdued, 

One policy pursued ! 
To Asia back were hurled barbaric hosts, 
With one swift blow freed all the Grecian coasts 



ODE TO GREECE. 57 

From the dire darkness that there threatened them, 
And us, far offshoots of that thoughtful stem. 
Dear Salamis, thou art 
A beacon to the earth : 
Thy light thou didst create, and still dost dart 
Its rays where minds are polished to reflect mind's 
worth. 

Greece ! all thy sunny face 

Glistens with beacons high, 
Tomb, trophy, or renowned birth-place 
Of those that signals are to watchful eye ; 

Some by creative pen 

Snatched from the cloudy brink 

Of legend, visionary men, 
Whom Homer's vast projecting power 

Launched on the ages. Link 

'Twixt Gods and men, they cower 



58 ODE TO GREECE. 

Scarce to their clay compeers, 
But help us feel, act, think, 
As do thy statesmen, artists, soldiers, seers : 

Pindar and Phidias, Pericles, 
Solon, Leonidas, Timoleon, 

And the great kin of these ; 
Epaminondas, like to Washington 

In fortitude and calm far-seeing, 

In truthfulness and forceful being ; 
Miltiades, Phocion, Demosthenes, 
And loose colossal Alcibiades ; 
Sophocles, iEschylus, Euripides, 
With brave, derisive Aristophanes, 
First forgers of unrusting scenic keys, 
And by their side faithful Thucydides ; 
Nor should be honored any one by us 
More than Tyrannicide Thrasybulus ; 

And still fame scores her wide decrees : 



ODE TO GREECE. 59 

Lesbian Sappho, Simonides, 

World-grasping Aristoteles, 
And many-minded Empedocles ; 
Th' heroic Theban, stout Pelopidas, 
Thinker and liver pure, Pythagoras, 
And Plato the divine, and still diviner 
Deep Socrates, in ripened reach of mind 

Unparagoned, subtlest refiner 
Of the most free and choice and good of human kind. 

But him th' Athenians slew : 
In cruel blindness bleak 
They slew their best, nor knew 
In that gross deed how weak 
Their will ; and how their self -accomplished doom 
Was deeply graven on the mighty martyr's tomb. 

1875. 



WARD'S SHAKESPEARE. 

(On first seeing, in Central Park, the statue of Shakespeare, by Ward.) 

On" an early autumn day, 

With sunny shadows bright, 
Warmed was I in a new ray, 

Awed by the sudden might 

Of a great presence, as I stood, 

Flushed into fullest mood, 

Before the mightiness 
Of Shakespeare, springing 
From beamy shaft, and bringing 

Deep admiration's joy, to bless 
The thankful gazer's eye 
With his dear majesty. 



WARD'S SHAKESPEARE. 61 

In a hushed gladness, 

In love and tender sadness, 

We looked, almost with reverence bent, 
As there his image sprang, 

In beautiful embodiment, 
From a fit pedestal, 
As though the Muses nine, all musical, 
At its creation's feat together sang 

When it uprose into the air, 
A living form of strength and grace, 
Crowned with that thoughtful face, 

And holy head so fair, 
Vaulted and swol'n by tides of urgent deeps 

From earth and heaven and man, 
Itself a central depth, wherein there leaps 

A life that can 

Feed hungering humanity ; 

Men, women, children, grouped to see 



62 WARD'S SHAKESPEARE. 

Each other kindled (part unconsciously) 

By this refulgent effigy 
Of a perennial splendor \ 
Nature a brimful lender 
Of glory and of light, 
To consecrate a power, a delight, 
A triumph aye to feeling, thought, and sense, 
A boon given by heavenly art, 
Through sympathy of heart, 
And made to bloom in ever-fresh magnificence. 

October, 1875. 



BUNKER HILL. 

" Not yet, not yet ; steady, steady I " 

On came the foe, in even line : 
Nearer and nearer, to thrice paces nine. 
We looked into their eyes. " Ready ! " 
A sheet of flame ! A roll of death ! 
They fell by scores ; we held our breath ! 
Then nearer still they came ; 
Another sheet of flame ! 
And brave men fled who never fled before. 
Immortal fight ! 
Foreshadowing flight 
Back to the astounded shore. 



64 BUNKER HILL. 

Quickly they rallied, reinforced. 
Mid louder roar of ship's artillery, 
And bursting bombs and whistling musketry, 
And shouts and groans, anear, afar, 
All the new din of dreadful war, 
Through their broad bosoms calmly coursed 
The blood of those stout farmers, aiming 
For freedom, manhood's birthrights claiming. 

Onward once more they came : 
Another sheet of deathful flame ! 
Another and another still. 

They broke, they fled : 

Again they sped 
Down the green, bloody hill. 

Howe, Burgoyne, Clinton, Gage, 
Stormed with commanders' rage ! 



BUNKER HILL. 65 

Into each emptied barge 
They crowd fresh men for a new charge 

Up that great hill. 
Again their gallant blood we spill : 
That volley was the last : 
Our powder failed. 
On three sides fast 
The foe pressed in ; nor quailed 
A man. Their barrels empty, with musket-stocks 
They fought, and gave death-dealing knocks, 
Till Prescott ordered the retreat. 
Then Warren fell ; and, through a leaden sleet, 

From Bunker Hill and Breed, 
Stark, Putnam, Pomeroy, Knowlton, Read, 
Led off the remnant of those heroes true. 
The foe too shattered to pursue. 
The ground they gained ; but we 
The victory. 



66 BUNKER HILL. 

The tidings of that chosen band 

Flowed in a wave of power 
Over the shaken, anxious land, 
To men, to man, a sudden dower. 
From that staunch, beaming hour 
History took a fresh, higher start ; 
And when the speeding messenger, that bare 
The news that strengthened every heart, 
Met near the Delaware, 
Eiding to take command, 
The leader, who had just been named, 

Who was to be so famed, 
The steadfast, earnest Washington 

With hand uplifted cries, 
His great soul flashing to his eyes, 
" Our liberties are safe ; the cause is won ! " 
A thankful look he cast to heaven, and then 
His steed he spurred, in haste to lead such noble men. 

June 8, 1875. 



A NATION'S BIRTH. 

JULY THE FOURTH, 1776. 

With untried deeper rhythm, 

As for a holier chrism, 

Sea-choruses along 

The Atlantic coast sang their resounding song, 

The unwonted fugue by tides 

Borne inland to the hills, 

Whose hearkening savage sides 

Quiver to feel the strain that thrills 

Broad air with new prophetic flood. 

Lone Niagara, in his ag^d solitude, 

Catching the robust sound, 

Shouted such thunderous shout 

His neighbor seas and wakened wilderness 

Shook to the core, the shout's rebound 



68 A NATION'S BIRTH. 

Making the wisest stars look out 

By day, with their best light to bless 

The splendid prophecy. 

Onward with the happy Sun 

Swept the warm fluent symphony, 

Mingling at noon 

Its martial tune 

With Mississippi's giant run 

(Who paused in joy to listen) ; 

Then westward sped to where 

Nevada's virgin summits glisten 

In vast Pacific's glare. 

The placid Ocean, her great sister's roar 

Quick answering, with calm upheaval smote 

The sleeping golden shore, 

Echoing Atlantic's jubilant note ; 

For she well knew that tone the birth-throes meant 

Of a new Empire on their sunny Continent. 



A NATION'S BIRTH. 69 

Deep nature feels with deeper man, 
Attuned to heipfullest accord 
When first creative breathings here began 
Their endless work and sacred word. 
The invisible circumambient air 
Feeds with its finest food the soul, 
And from sidereal reaches brings 
More heavenly visitings 
When nobler aspirations bear 
Upward men's thought and a stout will control. 

And now the manful race, 
Who close behind tempestuous capes 
Had built self-governed tenures, brace 
Brave hearts 'gainst usurpation, that aye gapes 
For more. From Hampshire's mountain fields 
To Georgia's hot alluvial plains, 
Where'er soil, tree, or river yields 



70 A NATION'S BIRTH. 

Fruit to industrious foresight's pains, 

Farms, hamlets, cities, towns upgrew, 

Mastered by men who from dear England drew 

Their wishes, principles ; who brought 

Much freedom with them, seeking more ; 

So that, when England's arrogant King distraught, 

With his dull oligarchic tools would gore 

This loyal people with sharp tyrannies, 

Uneasy motions mounted by degrees 

From silent deeps to uttered wrath, 

Until to some the bloody path 

Of war yawned on the vision. South and North, — 

In those first days there was no West, — 

Empowered men, their wisest, best, 

In solemn Congress to deliberate ; 

From whom such words and acts went forth, 

That Chatham to them tribute paid, 

And from his peerless station said, 



A NATION'S BIRTH. 71 

In History they have no mate. 

To that august Assembly give 

Thanks upon thanks from age to age, 

Yet, long as on this Continent shall live 

Men of our race, they will not disengage 

Their being from its living debt to them. 

In the conned annals of the breeds 

Who wrought for right by word and deeds, 

Each one will shine a beckoning gem. 

The spirit that will not brook the wrong, 

That was the pith that made them strong. 

And one there was, the very symbol clear 

Of this hale spirit, wise 

Even above each great compeer, 

A man from whose blue deepening eyes 

Looked soul so human, so benign, 

Men felt his presence as a breath divine, 

A light whereby their souls could see, 



72 A NATION'S BIRTH. 

Inspiriting warmth to chilled humanity. 

Not yet full known, more felt 

Than valued, in him dwelt, 

Yet latent to himself, the powers 

That were to blaze o'er darkest hours 

A flame of might, a star 

Potent to rule the waywardness of war. 

And now came couriers breathless, pale, 
Sped from the North by battle's wail ; 
And in and out of Boston stood 
Defiant armies, their hot blood 
By mutual slaughter chafed to infuriate mood. 
The Congress oped its arms a'nd made its own 
The host that had so boldly thrown 
Its bloody gauntlet in the teeth 
Of Britain's power. The sheath 
Of peace was flung away. And then, 
In that great clan of men, 



A NATION'S BIRTH. 73 

All looks were turned to him, 

By no self-seeking stained, 

Sole leader, preordained 

To vast achievement, dim 

As yet even to the scope 

Of largest earthliest hope. 

With earnest unanimity 

The high Assembly named 

Him who for young supremacy 

In arms was early in Virginia famed. 

Then he, as fast as horse could speed, 

Eode eager to the post decreed. 

And when the ranks in Cambridge their new chief 

Beheld, upwent a myriad-throated shout 

That shattered sheer the veil of doubt : 

His mien majestic gendered quick belief, 

As 'neath the Elm he calmly took command 

O'er all the forces of th' embattled land. 



74 A NATION'S BIRTH. 

And when that sacred sword flashed in the Sun 
For us, a liberating power was won, 
For History, the name of Washington. 

Now Order by the throat rude Chaos caught, 
And stern Obedience to loose License taught 
The fruitful laws of discipline. 
Then mattock, shovel, pick, and spade 
So wrought at fort and palisade, 
The foe was daily more pent in. 
Through all one night of early spring 
With thundering echo fell, 
From the wide hurried ring 
Of forts, ball, bomb, and shell 
Upon the leaguered foe, 
Puzzled not long to know 
What meant this deafening night's 
Unresting cannonade ; 
For on the impending heights 



A NATION'S BIRTH. 75 

Of Dorchester shovel and spade 

Had in those few noise-shielded hours 

Built battlement that lowers 

So deadly on army, fleet, that in dismay 

The foe his legions pressed aboard and sailed away. 

From rescued Boston toward the South, 
To Hudson's affluent mouth 
The Chieftain sped, 
In time to meet 
The foeman, thither fled, 
Borne by his puissant fleet. 
And now began those great retreats, — 
Tokens of his high mastership, — 
Which the outnumbering war-trained enemy 
Outwore, and, spite of manifold defeats 
And gashing strokes on thigh and hip, 
Upstored for us the final victory. 

Whilst in New York the Chief was compassed round 



76 A NATION'S BIRTH. 

With risks, from Philadelphia came a sound 

Ne'er heard before 

All the world o'er, 

Shout for a Nation's birth ! 

Then through the Peoples of the earth 

Shot a new thrill, 

And a new will 

Waked, with an earthquake heave, 

In the drugged consciousness of man. 

Then all who sorely grieve 

Beneath compulsive sway 

Smiled fiercely, as from mount to valley ran 

The auroral tidings of that holy day. 

Vast spectacle sublime ! 

Unseen on all the rearward heights of time ! 

A State deliberately self-created, 

A Nation born of highest principles, born 

Of inward, manful, moral need, 



A NATION'S BIRTH. 77 

Upreared from feeling into deed, 

On that blest July morn, 

For aye to freedom consecrated. 

Out of itself a people drew 

Its government anew. 

Of History's highest they the peers 

Those fifty-six who signed as one, 

Tutelary pioneers 

Those few who seized a safety for the whole, — 

By magnitude of soul 

Creators, Poets, gifted Seers, 

Through the rhythm of lofty deeds, 

In holy unison 

With the singing of the Spheres, — 

Prophets who sowed so wisely deep, their seeds 

Keep coming up for aye 

In luminous display, 

In broadening benefaction ; 



78 A NATION'S BIRTH. 

So freshly sound their action, 
Their doings live in all the best we do : 
From them our privileged possessings, — 
A glorious past and freedom to be true. 
May we still have their blessings ! 

While this strong band, in that ascendant hour, 
On its vast orbit hurled 
Portentous Empire, a new Power 
Among the Nations of the world, 
And to the glad caressing blast 
A maiden banner cast 
"With sane audacity, 

Their chosen martial Leader, where was he ? 
Driven from stand to stand 
By foes swarming on shore and sea 
Outnumbering far 
In men and the armory of war 
His raw command ; 



A NATION'S BIRTH. 79 

Almost surrounded, 

His flanks and rear 

By boats of foemen bounded, 

And, fearful thought ! himself to death so near ; 

For, galloping, at cannon's call, 

He met a squadron flying : 

Enraged at such a fall 

From duty, fear's disgrace, 

He snapt his pistols in their face, 

Struck at them with his sword, and crying 

" Am I to save America with these ? " 

In his wild anger sprang to throw 

Himself single upon the advancing foe, — 

His bright soul for a moment dimmed by honor's 

wrath, — 
Had not been by an Aide to sieze 
His horse and wheel him from the deathful path. 
His wonted calm he soon regained, 



80 A NATION'S BIRTH. 

To guard, like growling lion foiled, 
The panic-stricken fugitives, he pained 
To the soul that they had so ingloriously recoiled. 

Still reenf orced, the foe 
Drove him across the Hudson, slow, 
With his lion's heart, to turn his back, 
Except to save the cause. Ever on the rack 
Himself, as man, as General, he still kept 
The courage up of all ; and now he wept 
As tenderest child, to see 
The heroic garrison 
Of fortress "Washington 
Butchered before his eyes incapably. 
Nothing was left but flight 

Through Jersey's plains : he had no means to fight. 
Mistrust, desertion, treason, blind despair 
Within, poisoning the general air, 
Exultant enemies without, 



A NATION'S BIRTH. 81 

Sure clutching at his total rout, 
His country's and his doom 
Seemed swift impending. 'Mid the gloom 
The shaken land that palled 
He stood staunch, hopeful, unappalled, 
His steadfast soul a light 
To warn his country to its right. 
While proud oppressors everywhere 
Joyed like lean tiger leaping from his lair, 
And the oppressed still deeper groaned, 
Feeling their chains already bind 
More tightly, he sat throned 
On faith in good and his unconquerable mind. 
Pursued to Delaware's low banks, 
He passed with thinned and sickly ranks, 
His army to a handful dwindled, 
Almost extinct the fire so late enkindled. 
When winter's gloom had deepened night, 

6 



82 A NATION'S BIRTH. 

And the half-conquered land had chilled 

With thoughts the colder for its plight, 

And pulse of hope was nearly stilled, 

And every patriotic eye 

Drooped with despondency, 

Washington the rough river crossed 

At midnight, his full boats betossed 

In ice ; and through a storm of snow 

Struck unexpected blow 

That made their legions reel ; 

Repassed the flood, with keel 

Deeper for a thousand prisoners, 

Startling the lifted land, that stirs 

Once more with hope ; and then, 

Hardly time given to rest his men, 

The freezing Delaware recrossed 

To front at Trenton confident Cornwallis, 

Who exclaimed at evening, " Now he 's lost, 



A NATION'S BIRTH. 83 

He 's mine to-morrow." Of that solace 

The British Chief was cheated. 

For, roused by distant cannon's boom, 

That told his rear would be defeated, 

He looked, to see the room, 

Filled in the evening by our camp, 

Deserted, bare, our squadrons gone, 

Unheard their stealthy tramp. 

'T was a great day for us and Washington, 

That morning fight at Princeton. 

The first line checked and driven back, 

His drawn sword gleaming, 

His eyes war-lightnings beaming, 

He led them to a fresh attack, 

"Waving and calling to the charge : 

Himself on battle's hottest marge 

A moment veiled by smoke, 

He emerged victor by personal daring, 



84 A NATION'S BIRTH. 

By his inspiring mien and bearing. 
By bold strategic stroke. 
Courage with wisdom blent. 
Well might great Frederick send a sword, 
Magnanimously enfurled 
In this significant word, 
" From Europe's oldest General sent 
To the greatest in the world." 
England, America, at length 
Began to feel the single strength 
Of this upmounting man. 
The worst birth-throes were past. 
The foe — he stood aghast 
To see shattered his fostered plan. 

But still must we smart at defeats, 
Still mourn rude sufferings, checks, retreats ; 
At Brandywine, at Germantown, 
Again confront war's bloody frown ; 



.4 NATION'S BIRTH. 85 

x\nd shiver then at Valley Forge, 
Where, as in Alpine gorge, 
Winter's impetuous blasts 
Their anger at our warriors dart, 
Half clad, half fed at their repasts ; 
Only their souls warmed by their Chief's great heart. 

From Philadelphia's nest Clinton flew North. 
Tracking him on his way, sped forth 
The aye watchful Washington, who struck 
At Monmouth staggering blow ; 
Then, careworn, soon could comfort pluck 
From the advent of Count Rochambeau 
From France, bringing most timely generous aid, 
The which with thanks can never be o'erpaid. 
To the far South, now sorely prest, 
The Chief despatched his trustiest, best 
Lieutenant, Greene ; worthy to be 
Second to such a first was he. 



86 A NATION'S BIRTH. 

Then after him the gallant Lafayette, 

Our noble friend, and who not yet 

Hath had his meed of statue, but whose name 

Will ever sparkle with this unique fame, 

That he was as a son 

Beloved of Washington. 

And now the Chief, with practiced martial ken, 
Planned from afar 
The climax of the war, 
Shaping each angle of the pen 
Whereinto was Cornwallis driven ; 
And the last link of chains, 
That bound us to the pains 
Of weak dependence, riven. 
Once more he crossed the Delaware. 
Britain, beware ! 
'T is the last time 
The man sublime 



A NATION'S BIRTH. 87 

Will pass in panoply of war. 

His soul is now in arms 

Burning fierce War to push 

From his black throne, and hush 

His dread alarms. 

Europe, America, hung on that march : 

All knew him then the keystone of the arch. 

His soldiers were bronzed veterans now ; 

The officers tried heroes, who 

To patriotism had made a vow ; 

Martyrs if need be, prompt to woo 

Danger where dangers most abound ; 

Men who went earnest forth to found 

A great Kepublic for the Ages, 

Fame, consciousness of duty their high wages. 

This dear exalted band, 

To whom we owe our land, 

Our privilege to do the right, 



88 A NATION'S BIRTH. 

Our deepest fountains of delight, 

Looked to their Chief with reverence 

And love, with confidence 

Illimitable. In the camp, 

The field, he was their lamp 

Of safety. From within, this modest man 

Earned his high place of foremost in the van. 

A primal goodness in his nature turned 

His wheels of action, either when he burned 

With wrath or calmly for the better yearned. 

'T was a large heart's soft throb that warmly swelled 

His being to its clean, symmetric, great 

Proportions. Men loved him because there welled 

Within himself such love it made his state 

An hourly benediction. 'T was the weight 

Of character that gave his look its power. 

Those who came near him put religious trust 

In his plain speech, that braced them strong and quelled 



A NATION'S BIRTH. 89 

All discontent and fear. He was so just 
His will became the measure of the true ; 
And angels seemed to second it and strew 
Quick lights along his darknesses, a shower 
Of guidance, as they held him for a mate : 
With high superiorities so rife, 
He came to be the soul of a new Nation's life, 
The ideal man for a whole People's lead, 
Beacon whereby the true and pure to read ; 
A man whose life had this transcendent beauty, 
'T was all and ever subject unto duty. 

On the great march he to Mount Yernon came. 
Six stormful years had died since, without name, 
A simple country gentleman, in story 
Unknown, he left it. He returned, a glory 
To the land, his country's father, and a light 
Forever in his country's sight. 
Short time he tarried, but with guests 



90 A NATION'S BIRTH. 

Illustrious rode onward to where 
The foe still gleams in arms, and rests 
Hopeful of help, which 't is the care 
Of Washington shall not be given. 
At last the British chieftain, who had striven 
Bravely 'gainst skill and fate, reluctant yields. 
Then on war-wounded fields 
The Angel Peace poured his strong balm, 
And sudden rapturous calm 
Smoothed, like a smiling slumber, 
The ruffled feverish land, and number 
Of fleetest couriers bore from side to side 
The mighty news. Late in the night 
They stirred the city watch, who all alight 
Strode quick, and cried 
From block to block, 
Glad citizens to waken, 
" Past two o'clock ! 
Cornwallis is taken." 



